Sudanese refugees relocate from Abyei to Aweil citing hunger, lack of shelter
May 12, 2025 (JUBA, South Sudan) – Hundreds of Sudanese refugees have relocated from the contested Abyei region to Aweil in South Sudan’s Northern Bahr el Ghazal state after months of living outdoors with inadequate food and shelter, a refugee representative said.
The refugees, displaced by Sudan’s ongoing conflict, feared the approaching rainy season would worsen their conditions in Abyei, an oil-rich area claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan, with no immediate prospect of returning home.
Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), particularly in Sudan’s Kordofan and Darfur regions, has driven waves of refugees across the border into South Sudan and Abyei.
“We have finally reached Aweil town, and we were well received,” Mohamed Ahmed Abdallah, a representative of the refugee group, told Sudan Tribune on Monday. “We are coming from Abyei where we spent more than six months in the open, with no food… no shelter. It was a situation of hunger.”
Abdallah said the group decided to move after hearing that state authorities in Aweil had sent trucks to transport others who had arrived earlier from Sudan. “We approached the team… and the team agreed to bring us with our families,” he added.
Dominic Kang, Northern Bahr el Ghazal’s minister of land, housing and infrastructure, confirmed that 192 Sudanese refugees arrived in Wanyjok, the administrative headquarters of Aweil East county, on Sunday and were received by Governor Tong Akeen Ngor.
Their arrival followed that of more than 1,000 South Sudanese returnees who had also been stranded in Abyei due to the conflict in Sudan. Fifteen trucks transported the returnees from Northern Bahr el Ghazal and other South Sudanese states, arriving Saturday evening.
Kang said officials provided space for the Sudanese refugees on the transport trucks. “We saw their situation and we were moved to accept their request,” Kang said. “We will arrange to return to Abyei and bring the remaining groups of our people.”
Describing Sudanese and South Sudanese as “the same people” under different administrations, Kang added: “The situation we saw was moving… They were in the open with no shelter and no food… we agreed to bring them after consulting with the officials from the Abyei administrative area and back here with our governor.”
Addressing the returnees separately, Governor Ngor encouraged them to reintegrate and engage in farming during the current agricultural season.
The governor also launched the distribution of relief items, including rice, beans, maize flour, and cooking oil, funded by the Office of the President, to support the returnees. He stated that more transport trips would be organized to bring back stranded individuals before the rainy season intensifies.
Lual Awach Mangar, head of the state’s Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, said 15 trucks were sent, each carrying over 70 people and their luggage, prioritizing vulnerable groups like children, women, the elderly, and those with health issues. Some requiring medical attention were taken to hospitals in Aweil, including one run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Mangar added.